March 2017

Now Available

Lessons from Cinema One Originals 2016

The brains behind some of this year’s most interesting Cinema One Originals share their thoughts on originality, local cinema, and life in general.

by Emil Hofileña

Under the tagline “Anong tingin mo?” this year’s Cinema One Originals festival, which screened local and international films from November 14-22, remained consistent with its brand as a festival meant to challenge audiences.

The ten entries in competition experimented with form and execution — often refusing to tell linear stories, while leaving the door wide open for multiple interpretations. Movies like the genre-defying Every Room Is a Planet and Best Picture winner 2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten played with visual conventions, while the Audience Choice-winning Baka Bukas and Martial Law documentary Forbidden Memory challenged LGBT representation and historical revisionism, respectively. Other competing documentaries Piding and People Power Bombshell: The Diary of Vietnam Rose questioned the very definition of documentary filmmaking itself.

Watching a Cinema One Originals entry is a wholly unique experience, but creating one is undoubtedly even more affecting. We spoke to directors Keith Deligero (Lily), Jules Katanyag (Si Magdalola at Ang mga Gago), Samantha Lee (Baka Bukas), Paolo Picones (Piding), Teng Mangansakan (Forbidden Memory), John Torres (People Power Bombshell: The Diary of Vietnam Rose), and Petersen Vargas (2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten) to see where they stand and if they’ve changed after the Cinema One Originals experience.

Vargas: I think there can never be just one top priority. There are responsibilities you owe to yourself, to your audience, and to the subjects and concerns related to the film you’re making. You owe it to everyone directly and indirectly involved to your story to be as exacting and honest and sincere as possible. Can we give an equal amount of responsibility to all these things? We can try, why not!

Vargas: What makes a good story great is that, after having read, listened to, or watched it, you feel its honesty and sincerity. I think personal stories are really the best. I say personal not in the sense that it’s lifted directly from someone’s actual experiences, but more about how the artist and his/her artistry resonates in the work, no matter how hyper-real, fantastical, genre-driven, or whatever, it is.

Ano sa tingin mo ang kapangyarihan ng dokumentaryo?

Picones:Malakas at maaaring makapag-ugnay o makapagbigay impormasyon sa mga tao. Kaso, madali lang din maging biased at maging misunderstood ang isang dokumentaryo. When a filmmaker is there on site documenting something, it means that he/she is already changing the situation, or sometimes even manipulating the story for the sake of filming something “good” out of it.

Vargas: The main cast — Khalil Ramos, Ethan Salvador, and Jameson Blake — they’re young actors, but you feel how dedicated they are to what they’re doing, to their craft. The entire thing felt very collaborative, and each of us really put our hearts and souls into building up our characters to make them as alive as they could be.

Lee: They are the best.

Ano sa tingin mo ang pinakamahirap na bahagi ng paggawa ng pelikula?

Mangansakan: It’s hard to come up with money and to meet people’s expectations. Or maybe I’m just too hard on myself.

Lee: Having to show your work to other people.

Ano sa tingin mo ang pinakamasayang bahagi ng paggawa ng pelikula?

Vargas: I think it changes with each film I make. Right now, working with actors is that one aspect of the shoot that I’ve enjoyed the most. I love creating characters, and I love to breathe life into characters. When you see an actor become who they’re supposed to be as a character — it’s one of the best feelings in the world for me.

Lee: Collaborating with other people.

Mangansakan: Cinema affords you a voice to tell a truth. It gives you a chance to change people’s perceptions of their truth. It is a celebration of the plurality of realities distilled in a two-hour opus.